On Nationalism
by Mazzie May
Summary: After reading about a horrible incident in the newpaper, Leon and Sherry speak of nationalism amongst a few other things. Rated T. Read&review! Note: Read both author's notes!


**Author's Note: All political views presented here are conclusions that I came to on my own, but are not to be credited to me, and I'm not trying to promote them. And the Apple Pie thing is true.**

**Summary: After reading about a horrible incident in the paper, Leon and Sherry share a few political ideas.**

**Rating: I'm a go with T, this time.**

Political Leon By: Mazzie May 

Leon lay silently on the floor. That's how he always was while reading the paper; back flat on the white carpet, arms extend slightly, the paper held in a way that blocked the living room light fixture.

He'd slept in by a few hours; it was almost time for Sherry to be returning home from school. But he wasn't really watching the clock. He was a bit busy, scowling at the paper. _Goddamn, another one._ He thought disgusted. _What the hell is wrong with people…?_

This thought and others like it forced him into his own world – one that was shattered a moment later when Sherry threw open the door, the knob hitting the wall with a loud _crack_. He was so caught up in his mind he hadn't heard her thundering up the apartment stairs.

Leon sat up quickly and, after taking in her appearance, shot up to his feet and had his hand on his gun in a second. He always had one on him. It was a matter of if you could see where he was hiding it. "What the hell happened to you?" He asked waving her in, scanning the area behind her.

Sherry's side bag had been thrown messily over her shoulder and neck, scrunching up her uniform jacket and tie. Her hair was wind-swept and tangled. She was huffing heavily and loudly. Obviously, she'd run like hell to get here. Question was, what caused it.

She placed her right hand on the couch, supporting her wait and began digging in her coat pocket with her left. Leon closed the door and winced. The doorknob had made a hole in the wall. Thinking about his credit card and grimacing her turned back to her. "I repeat: what the hell happened to you?"

She'd pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket – a pamphlet, really – and thrust it at him. Drawing his brows together Leon took it, flipped it and scanned the front.

His jaw slowly dropped and his eyes widened.

"There's a Gannon University?"

Sherry nodded, regaining her breath. "Yh-yeah, it's in Pennsylvania."

"Holy Shit." He tossed his gun on the couch, opening the pamphlet. "You have to go".

She nodded rapidly. "I know I rh-really wanna attend. Wh-when I got it, I rh-ran home as fast as-as I could to show you"

Leon gave a small head bob, listening but not really caring. Sherry flopped into the recliner horizontally, her legs over one arm, her head over the other. She was still breathing fairly hard. After a moment, she said "I have no idea what I would major in or anything, though…"

Leon snorted, still looking at the pictures. "Who the hell cares? You should go just so you can say you went."

She glared at him through a clump of tangled hair. He rolled his eyes, saying "You don't even declare your major until second or third year, anyway. No big".

"Mmm" was her response. As the ache in her lungs began to decrease, she rolled over on her side, bring her legs in and tucking her feet next to her butt on the cushion. She still had a bit of room, and brought her head in as well. She was so small she could cuddle in that tiny amount of a space. On her side she saw the paper. Leon had been reading it, was her guess. Sherry remembered a joke Claire had once made about being shocked that Leon could even understand what was going on in the paper and she began to smile. But it dropped quickly when she saw the story that took up the most room on the page.

Another Day, Another Hate Crime 

**__**

She bit her lip, looking sadly at the carpet. It wasn't the first, and it won't be the last. She was a little surprised, though; normally Leon would be glaring daggers into the paper.

Yet, there he sat, totally distracted from it. It made her a little sad. Were these things happening so often that even Leon, with his intense sense of justice, grand political judgment and strong settings with right and wrong would begin to get used to it, learned to accept it?

The thought made her sick to her stomach. She asked without hesitating. "I hate to be a bother, but doesn't that-" she pointed to the paper. "-bother _you_?"

Leon looked down at the paper and back at Sherry. "Sure, it piss me off. People who think that terrorists-" he made quotations with his fingers. "'hate' freedom, people who, if you express the slightest dislike for something American, immediately begin saying that you're anti-America and so forth."

Sherry thought on it for a short moment. **"**Why do people do that? Aside from being stupid? Does anything prompt it?"

Leon grimaced, waving his hand slowly, almost as if shooing a fly away.** "**Stupid, blind nationalism and being brainwashed by party slogans and the like.

"It's mostly ignorance though. Like when I've mentioned that I've never understood nationalism, people think that I support the terrorists and shit like that. No, I just don't understand why I should have to follow everything my country does without question simply because I was born here." He crossed his arms over his chest.

_Funny that he said that_, Sherry thought. But it's a good point. Hell, Leon's a government agent and he's not okay with any of it.

"And this whole "war on terror" bullshit..." Leon looked up at her, uncrossing his arm and leaning forward, with his forearms on his knees. "You can't fight an idea. Nor can you fight a bunch of completely separate cells that have only one thing in common," he paused, looking at her.

Sherry waited, but then realized he was waiting for her to finish the thought. "This idea that what they're doing is right?"

Leon nodded slowly twice. "Exactly. Everyone thinks they're on the 'right' side. The 'good' side." He stopped, and then added almost as an afterthought, "The 'Holy' side."

"And people who think that all Muslims are like that," he looked murderously at the paper, and Sherry wondered for a brief, humorous moment if Leon blamed the paper. "-are goddamn stupid as well; blaming the entire religion." He brought his eyes back up to her.

Sherry rolled a little in the recliner. Her feet were still pressed against her butt, but now her back was pressed flatly against the cushion, neck craned to look a Leon. Flexible little thing, ain't she? "Actually…" she began slowly, trying to remember what she'd learned in her CWA class. "These holy warriors… they take bits and pieces from their religion and… piece them together in order to justify their murderous rampages. "

Leon nodded at her again, smiling a little. "Yeah, that's right, very good. Most of the Muslim world hate them and want nothing to do with the psychopaths."

**"**People are idiots," Sherry said, pressing her lips out, a mix of puckering and pouting. It was a cute.

Leon laughed, nodding.** "**Right, right. In short, people are idiots. That's what most of my rants come down to really. People are morons."

**"**Well, that's a fact."

The sat in an easy silence for a minute. Sherry then asked quietly. "You think people'll ever realize you can't fight an idea with an army?"

Leon shook his head.** "**Nope. It's the American way. If we don't like it, we-" he spread his arms out wide. "-blow it to hell."

Sherry smiled at him widely.** "**Isn't that the truth," Her smile faded. "I wonder why we're so full of ourselves? Why is that when people come to America, we expect them to speak American, but when we visit other places, we expect the places we want to go have American speaking people, too?

Leon shrugged, saying very matter-of-factly,** "**Because Americans are, typically, very full of themselves. America is the only place on earth that matters, so other cultures, naturally, have adopted every single 'American' piece of culture."

Sherry squinted her eyes. Leon shrugged.** "**There's really no other way to explain it."

"That's sad…" she said quietly, hugging herself. Then a thought occurred to her. "But what is 'American'?"

A huge grin broke across Leon face. "Excellent question, Sher. You're a thinker. But to answer that question… It's hard to say. America's a melting pot of cultures from around the world. So there's nothing that's distinctly American, really." He sunk back into the couch.

Then, as if he just remembered. "Apple pie isn't even American, it's from Belgium I believe."

Sherry's mouth hung open a little. One of the 'great things about America' isn't American?** "**Oh…" was all she could get out. "Wow. Really?"

Leon's head was tilted back over the edge of the couch, his eyes closed.** "**Mmhm."

She smiled and laughed. "That's awesome. I'm spreading the word!"

Leon nodded, saying**. "**European, one way or another. Same with hamburgers and French fries."

**"**Oooh, that is so funny!" She got up and started towards the kitchen.

Leon opened his eyes, and looked over at Sherry as she picked up the receiver from the wall phone and began dialing her friends, indeed informing them about apple pie. He watched her laughing and felt very depressed. The thought that a teenage girl can have an in-depth discussion about why where they lived was a pompous place and what spawned _that_ was the brutal beating and raping of woman, and walk away laughing showed just how jaded she'd become. And little Leon had succeeded in trying to heal it. He was pleased, however, that she was so aware of what was going on not just around her, but in the world.

She'll be okay out there. She'll be able to take care of herself.

"Leon! What's a person called when they always think something is wrong with them?"

"Hypochondriac."

**"**Thank you! Michelle, you're a hypochondriac".

The fact she was laughing at all proved it.

**Author's Note: Hey-lo. First, sorry I got off topic towards the end. The point was, that even with all these terrible things happening in the world, children's laughter can still be found. I don't know how many of you talk to your parents or which of you parents talk to your kids about the war, but most of the time, the parent either says or thinks, "I'm sorry you have to see this". No matter whether you support it or not, no parent wants their child to witness that kind of destruction. Second, I would appreciate it if I didn't get any flames telling me that I'm "wrong". That's just my view on it. I totally know and understand that I'm one of the few who feel this way. And, yeah.**

**Until next time!**

**Leave a review! PLEASE! I can use the hit counter, you know!**


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